Official 2012/13 Premier League thread

[stokeriño]

Penalty! Larsson makes stupid challenge on Ramires when the ball is rolling out of play.

Torres takes it and scores his second: 2-0.

[brenchill]

It isn't shitty - it's a good thing that no games are broadcast at 3pm on a Saturday. Encourages people to godown to support their local clubs.

Doesn't really seem that'd be an issue given the popularity of the sport. It's like the NFL blacking out games here in local markets ... which the "go to the game instead" tactic only actually applies to a couple of markets and has proven to be a useless approach. People are going to go or not go (in significant numbers) regardless of whether it's shown on tv or not.

I mean really, Arsenal isn't going to sell out or get 95% capacity if the match was shown ? Sunderland won't draw with Chelsea in town ? Wigan is going to drop 5-10K if the match is on tv ? Yeah, probably not. I mean Jacksonville and Miami draw for shit (relatively speaking) and have their games blacked out all the time. Nobody is going to spend money at the stadium to see them live because they're trainwrecks of organizations. Being on tv has nothing to do with the low attendance.

Oh, and shocking must have a slightly different definition over there then ...

Just means shit, really. Shockingly shit. Not shocking as in people were standing around open mouthed, stunned into silence.

Good old Torres. Fancy him to get a hat-trick today and Rafa to be hailed as a genius.

[stokeriño]

Only just realised Steve McManaman is commentating on my US stream of the game. Nice.

[Lineker]

It's more for the smaller teams that aren't in the Premier League. For example, if every Utd game was on TV, then the likes of Oldham would never get any fans in.

Really, it's a reason why our football pyramid is the strongest in the world. Nowhere else will you get thousands and thousands of people going to games in the second (and sometimes even third) tier.

[stokeriño]

Torres hits the woodwork and Mata puts the rebound in for 3-0. Oh Sunderland.

[brenchill]

Chelsea go 3 up. Mata 3 in his last 3.

[9 to 5]

Sunderland are going down.

[brenchill]

I'd be surprised if O'Neill is still there by the time the January window opens.

[stokeriño]

Adam Johnson gets a goal back in the 66th minute, 3-1.

[brenchill]

Cisse puts QPR 2-1 up.

[brenchill]

Wigan equalise. QPR ahead for all of 2 minutes.

[Dingle]

Fuck you Snodgrass.

[HailtotheYo]

It's more for the smaller teams that aren't in the Premier League. For example, if every Utd game was on TV, then the likes of Oldham would never get any fans in.

Really, it's a reason why our football pyramid is the strongest in the world. Nowhere else will you get thousands and thousands of people going to games in the second (and sometimes even third) tier.

Germany might disagree.

Just seems odd to hear this given the perception of how deeply rooted the connections between the fans/clubs are in England. It's like our college sports here. There's not a chance that Texas State won't get 15K or more just because Texas University or A&M is on TV every week. Just seems odd is all.

[stokeriño]

Ah, three league points. Feels nice.

[EddieG]

It's more for the smaller teams that aren't in the Premier League. For example, if every Utd game was on TV, then the likes of Oldham would never get any fans in.

Really, it's a reason why our football pyramid is the strongest in the world. Nowhere else will you get thousands and thousands of people going to games in the second (and sometimes even third) tier.

Germany might disagree.

Just seems odd to hear this given the perception of how deeply rooted the connections between the fans/clubs are in England. It's like our college sports here. There's not a chance that Texas State won't get 15K or more just because Texas University or A&M is on TV every week. Just seems odd is all.

It helps when you pay like 2 quid to get into a game over there in the lower leagues.

[stokeriño]

You know, the commentators on my stream were completely (willfully?) misinterpreting the "we don't care about Rafa" chants. If they actually listened to all three lines of the lyrics, the point is that we don't care about who he is or what he said about flags - all we care about is our club.

This, to me, sounds about as supporting as you're going to get...but maybe I'm wrong. ¬_¬

[Colly]

Presumably similar to our 'we don't care about Ashley, he don't care about me, all we care about is NUFC' in the Championship where outright hostility was just getting silly?

[stokeriño]

Very probably.

[Baddar]

De Gea, Cleverley, Valencia, Young, Rooney and RVP all start.

Balotelli and Aguero up front for City.

[brenchill]

Tom Cruise and Robert Duvall being interview before the Manchester derby is just bizarre.